Shortly after his older brother was drafted fifth overall, Taulia Tagovailoa made the decision to transfer from Alabama to Maryland. Rather than follow in Tua Tagovailoa’s footsteps, he is forging his own path. It was a rather stunning decision.
The biggest question everyone had was: Why did Tagovailoa leave Alabama? Now we have an answer, thanks to his father, Galu Tagovailoa.
Alabama didn’t give Taulia Tagovailoa the chance to compete
Speaking with AL.com, Galu Tagovailoa shared that Alabama wasn’t able to live up to a promise. This was, in part, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that changed everything this spring.
“It’s really tough and it’s nothing against Alabama,” Tagovailoa said. “But my boys are competitive and Lia is such a competitive kid. And he wanted an opportunity to compete. He was told that he was going to come in and compete and he didn’t really get that opportunity, so he wanted to use the spring to do that. But with the COVID-19 thing going on, he didn’t really have the opportunity to compete.”
As a freshman last season, Tagovailoa did appear in five games. However, he was unable to showcase his skill set and was mostly handing the ball off at the end of blowout wins. He wants the chance to do more than that. Maryland will give him that chance. Alabama, meanwhile, appears ready to have Mac Jones start in 2020, with the uber talented Bryce Young waiting in the wings.
Per his father, Tagovailoa is “a competitor” who “likes to work.”
“He likes to compete on the field. And just, going into the season this year, he just felt that he wasn’t given that opportunity and he wants to take it somewhere where they’re going to give him the opportunity to make the best of his skill set.”
Now he’ll get the chance to do all of that at Maryland. And we cannot wait to see how he shines.